1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method, device, and program for producing two-sided receipts by printing on both sides of paper using two printheads disposed to the paper conveyance path with a specific interval therebetween and then cutting the paper after printing is completed. More specifically, the invention relates to a method, device, and program that can reduce paper waste resulting from white space at the leading end of the receipt without conveying the paper in reverse.
2. Related Art
Receipt printers are commonly used in supermarkets and other retail stores. Such printers include printers that print on both sides of the paper in order to use paper more efficiently.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2007-320188, for example, teaches technology enabling a duplex printer to print quickly by dividing the print data between the front and back sides of the paper.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2009-123028 teaches technology for shortening receipt length by distributing the transaction information to be printed on the receipt to the front and back sides of the paper, and printing in areas other than the print areas where fixed information is printed.
These duplex printers have a cutter for cutting the printed paper, a first printhead for printing on one side of the paper, and a second printhead for printing on the other side of the paper disposed in this order from the downstream end of the paper conveyance path with specific intervals therebetween. Structurally this means that the cutter and the printhead on the upstream end are positioned with a specific distance therebetween, and unless some special action is taken after the paper is cut, white space equal to this distance is left as the leading end of the next receipt on the side that is printed by the printhead at the upstream end.
The paper could conceivably be moved to a specific position in reverse of the normal conveyance direction before printing starts in order to reduce this paper waste. The problem with this method is that it requires time to move the paper and some mechanical means of preventing the paper from jamming.
JP-A-2007-320188 does not describe a method of solving this problem. In addition, while JP-A-2009-123028 addresses white space formed by the distance between the two printheads, it does not address white space resulting from the distance between the cutter and the printheads.